BIGBANG IS BACK

Currently, K-pop programs are filled with new faces such as Sunny Hill, or B.A.P., but that is about to change. Many groups are returning to the stage here in the coming weeks after wrapping up their schedule abroad or dedicating their time to new albums. 

Boy band Big Bang will climb out of its incident-filled slump with the mini album “Blue” on Feb. 29. The song “Blue” was the first of the seven-track album to be released Wednesday. The list of the entire album is released, but YG Entertainment, the groupagency, labeled every song of the album except for the intro as “title track.” 

“Usually only one song is designated to represent an album. This time, we wanted to give equal weight to all the songs that theband worked very hard for,” said an official at YG. How this approach will affect the five-member band’s schedule is undecided. “We are still figuring out how to execute this plan. The goal is to give the fans as much opportunities as possible to fully enjoy all songs.”

Last year was a tough one for the K-pop group. In November, G-Dragon, the leader, had an indictment suspended by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office after being questioned on charges of smoking marijuana.

Another member, Dae-sung, was investigated after he ran over a 30-year-old man lying on the road before crashing into a parked taxi on Yanghwa Bridge on May 31. The prosecution cleared Dae-sung of charges for causing the death due to a lack of evidence. 

Following the release of the mini album, the group will embark on a world tour “Big Bang Alive Tour 2012.” Starting with shows in Seoul Olympic Park from March 2 to 4, Big Bang will perform in 25 cities in 15 countries. The group recently shot the music video for “Blue” and “Bad Boy” in New York. 

Miss A, a four-member girl group from JYP Entertainment, released its mini-album “Touch” on Monday. It includes six songs — “Touch,” “Lips,” “Rock ’n’ Rule,” “No Mercy” and “Over U.” The title track “Touch” is a catchy song about a heart break produced by Park Jin-young, the president of the agency. Upon release, it ranked number one in various music listings in the country such as Melon, Bugs, Mnet and Olleh Music. The music video is an experimental work that uses psychedelic images as well as frequent zooming techniques that accentuates the choreography. Incorporating sets and attire from the aesthetics of Shanghai in the 1980s, the footage manages to bring out mature beauty from the four young members. The video topped a Chinese music chart Yin Yue Tai on Monday. Miss A will be performing on channel Mnet’s “M Countdown” today.

Rock-inspired K-pop group CNBLUE will be returning home in March after a successful year in Japan. Their second single in Japan “Where You Are” ranked number one on the Oricon Chart in January, as the first foreign artists since Canadian rock band Mashmakhan in 1971. On March 9, CNBLUE will perform in LA with F.T. Island, another K-pop group. 

Ballad group 2AM from JYP Entertainment will break its long overdue silence at home on March 13 with a new release. This return marks their first full length album since October 2010. The single “Saint O’Clock” released in Japan in January sold over 50,000 copies. Jung Ji-woon, the youngest member of the group, is starring in the KBS 2TV sitcom “Dream High.”

Sejong the Great and Hangul, Korean alphabet

[ENG]DEEP ROOTED TREE by kpopwave

Sejong the Great and Hangul, Korean alphabet

Sejong the Great was the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. 

King Sejong the Great profoundly impacted Korean history with his introduction of hangul, the native phonetic alphabet system for the Korean language.

Sejong the Great was a Seonin (an elightened being) who came to Earth in order to spread Hangul and to contribute scientific development of Joseon in the foundation era. 

Before the creation of Hangul, only members of the highest class were literate. 

King Sejong presided over the introduction of the 28-letter Korean alphabet, with the goal that Koreans from all classes would read and write. 

According to him, it was not easy to persuade scholars to create new letters because they did not understand why it is necessary. 

Then, Sejong himself began this work. His smart sons and daughters helped him in the beginning. It was a secret project. Without love for his people, he could not be able to begin this project. 

According to him, the power of letters is significant. In order to awaken one’s consciousness, you need education. Without easy Korean alphabets, they were not able to read books and this means their consciousness stays all the time. 

Letters have their own life power, thus they are to be spreaded and this is what he meant when he first created Hangul although he knew it would not be well received in the beginning. 

Even today, art is considered something that people of upper class can only enjoy. However, the more society is evolved, the more art would become ordinary. Everyone becomes artist and everyone enjoys art. That is how the world gets richer and full of art. 

Tree with Deep Roots

Tree with Deep Roots: Korean King Sejong the Great and Hangul, Korean Alphabet The setting of this Drama gets back to 15th century, Joseon Dynasty of Korea. King Seojong was the fourth King of Joseon. Joseon dynasty is the last empire before Korean Republic was founded. Today, let's talk about Hangul. Thanks to Korean drama, many people around the world started learning Hangul. One is because they like the sound of Hangul, the other says she wants to talk in Korean with Korean pop starts. Either way is fine. Learning a different language is a reat way to understand one's culture.

Three main characters in Tree with Deep Roots Sejong the Great and Hangul, Korean alphabet Sejong the Great was the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. King Sejong the Great profoundly impacted Korean history with his introduction of hangul, the native phonetic alphabet system for the Korean language. Before the creation of Hangul, only members of the highest class were literate. King Sejong presided over the introduction of the 28-letter Korean alphabet, with the goal that Koreans from all classes would read and write. He also attempted to establish a cultural identity for his people through its unique script. According to him, it was not easy to persuade scholars to create new letters because they did not understand why it is necessary.

Then, Sejong himself began this work. His smart sons and daughters helped him in the beginning. It was a secret project. Without love for his people, he could not be able to begin this project. In the beginning of Hangul proclamation, people did not use it much. Like it takes some time when a new wave arrives in one’s era, it was not widely used by Korean people within Sejong’s time. However, when one wrote a novel criticizing politics of Joseon dynasty in Hangul around Jungjong era, 11th King of Joseon dynasty, it received an enthusiastic support from people of middle and lower classes. It was all thanks to Hangul. If it had been written in Hanja, a language of upper class, ordinary people could not understand the content.

Sejong the Great was a seonin (an elightened being) who came to Earth in order to spread Hangul and to contribute scientific development of Joseon in the foundation era. According to him, the power of letters is significant. In order to awaken one’s consciousness, you need education. Without easy Korean alphabets, they were not able to read books and this means their consciousness stays all the time. Letters have their own life power, thus they are to be spreaded and this is what he meant when he first created Hangul although he knew it would not be well received in the beginning. Even today, art is considered something that people of upper class can only enjoy. However, the more society is evolved, the more art would become ordinary. Everyone becomes artist and everyone enjoys art. That is how the world gets richer and full of art.